Princess
by ForAnything
Summary: "No! He is my prince! This is not a love triangle!" Her focus was now on Ladybug, and she was a lot more relentless in her pursuit of the heroine's demise. An Akuma that involves a princess and a falling tower leads to an injured Ladybug and a very surprised Chat Noir. The events which follow surprises them both.
1. Chapter 1

"You're seriously brain dead if you think this stupid club is good for anything," Chloe screeched as she crumpled her fourth flyer. A small pile of wrinkled balls was forming around her feet, Rose had attempted to snatch the stack away from her yet Chloe persisted in her individual destruction.

"Friendship and fairytales? Are you seven? Grow up!"

"What happened Chloe? We used to be friends! Why are you doing this?" Rose sobbed grabbing desperately for her papers.

"Oh my god you are still seven! That was ages ago, I wouldn't be caught dead being your friend."

Rose is hyperventilating now, and other kids have begun to surround the commotion. "Lay off Chloe, don't you have anything better to do?" Alya's voice rang across the courtyard and Rose breathed a sigh of relief, with the distraction she attempted to grab the leaflets one more time.

"Nope!" Chloe threw the flyers into the air and Rose gasped. She started flailing to catch them, tears streaming down her face. Despite the cackling from Chloe her sobs are loud and clear.

"Thanks for passing them out Chloe!" Alya shouts as she grabs a flyer, "I'll definitely be at the meeting Rose."

"Me too!" Nathanaël waved his flyer in the air- the flyers which he had designed for her. Children all around the courtyard started to shout their support, Chloe's face turned a darker shade of red with every syllable.

"Well forget about your stupid club because my father will never allow it to continue!"

"On what grounds?" Alya scoffed.

"It's offensive to me and my religious beliefs or whatever, let's go pay the principal a visit Sabrina," Chloe flashed a grin full of gloating and spun on her heel.

"If she pulls that stupid father card one more time I will strangle her with her designer purse!" Alya exclaimed, barely heard over the wails coming from Rose. Juleka attempted to place a comforting arm around her shoulder, but she shrugged it off and ran out of the gates of the school. The first bell rang before anyone had the chance to run after her.

"She needs me!" Juleka cried as her friends dragged her into the school.

"She'll understand that you can't get another tardy this quarter without being suspended."

Within five minutes the schoolyard had cleared, and Rose's sobs were once again audible. In some room, somewhere in the city, a window let the light in to reveal a suited man surrounded by butterflies.

"Ah, a girl who refuses to grow up. Nothing makes better prey for my akuma than those who are already stuck in a delusion."

He smirked as he placed his black gloved hands over the pure white of the butterfly, releasing a black and purple butterfly that was the exact opposite of the other butterflies in the room.

"Now fly, akuma, and help me to regain the Miraculous."

The butterfly flew out of the small gap in the window, and made its way to the dejected teenager. As soon as the butterfly collided with the crumpled flyer in the girl's hand, the darkness spread.

"Hello Princess," a voice echoed in the back of Rose's mind, "I can give you the power to give everyone a happy ending, and all you have to do is bring me the miraculous of Chat Noir and Ladybug."

"I'll do it!" She squeaked. The darkness that had consumed her flyer spread across her body, changing her regular clothes into a sparkling pink ball gown. A tiara fabricated itself upon her head, and wings sprouted out of her back. The flyer transformed itself into one of the key images, a sparkling black wand.

"No one will be without a fairytale ending today, now get me my Miraculous!"

Meanwhile, Adrien Agreste was falling asleep in class: again. In addition to his normal late night activities, he had forgotten about his English essay due today and had been up nearly all night finishing it. He assumed he wasn't the only one either, considering the fact that Marinette had been thirty minutes late to school and looked just as close to collapsing as he did. The teacher's words were going in one ear and out the other and he honestly couldn't care less. Sure, if his grades slipped even in the slightest his father could pull him out of public school- the last thing that he would ever want- but sleep deprivation gave him additional confidence on the matter. Besides, his tutor had gone over the subject the teacher was droning on about three months ago.

"Prepare to meet your happy endings!" A light voice tinkled from the hallways, followed by the screams of fellow students. Adrien immediately reached for his bag, preparing to run into a utility closet he favored for his transformation. He saw flashes of pink and green light, and students running past their classroom window.

"Ok class," Mademoiselle Bustier began, "We need to remain calm and-"

The door burst open before she could finish, and there stood Rose decked out in some renaissance fair outfit. "Chloe!" She shrieked as bursts of green and pink light flew off her hands.

"Rose? Now you're cosplaying? You are absolutely miserable!" Chloe cackled, but no one was laughing with her. In fact, Adrien saw his class abandoning Chloe completely to her fate. Adrien knew he'd be back, but he felt at least a little bit guilty for leaving the mean girl to fend for herself.

As he ran out of the classroom and rounded the corner he saw Alya and Marinette fighting, a rare sight. Alya seemed to be dragging Marinette towards the exit, but Marinette was pulling back towards the action.

"There are still people in there!"

"And there are people out here!"

"We need to help them, Chloe included!"

Adrien starts a little at Marinette's words, losing his rhythm towards his destination. Marinette had always been quiet, yet she was the class president, and he had always admired her selflessness; but this was taking it a little far, even for her. The sound of grinding rock was clearly audible from the classroom, following more flashes of the pink and green light. Frogs hopped around the hallways, circling mounds of rock that resembled castles slightly, though they looked more like caves. Walls were missing chunks from the construction of said castles, and he could hear pounding fists within.

Before he had time to further ponder how brave and stupid Marinette was acting, he reached the supply closet.

"Plagg, claws out!" He felt the usual wave of calmness and security which followed the green explosion of his transformation. So many things in his life had been planned out and controlled, so many things banned and regulated, but this was completely and totally his.

He ran back to where he had last seen Rose, only to find the room empty minus the new castle structures and more of the frogs- whom Adrien assumed were his male classmates.

He followed the shrieks and sound of grinding rocks to the courtyard, where Rose was flying next to a floating cage holding Chloe. She was watching children scrambling for safety, sadistically zapping them as they passed beneath her. The girls were covered in an avalanche of rocks with only a small pocket of air within for their "castle", while the guys became frogs. A fairytale which could theoretically never end, with no prince to save the princesses and no princess to kiss the frogs back to being princes.

"What are you supposed to be, the tea party master? Maybe stick to forcing your stuffed animals to play with you," Adrien felt guilty using such cruel words on his obviously slighted classmate, yet that was the Chat Noir profile: egg them on until Ladybug was there to help him finish the job.

"Chat Noir! You can be my prince!" She squealed, attempting to shoot him with one of the green rays of light. He dodged quickly, doing a backflip to avoid the impact. Rose's eyes glinted maleficently as she recharged to shoot again, but Adrien was just relieved that he had removed her focus from the general population.

Two bursts of green light shot towards him, and by dodging the first, Adrien had placed himself directly in the line of fire of the other. He braced himself to lose his coat of fur in exchange for a coat of mucus when a certain red and black spotted heroine jumped in front of him, twirling her yo-yo to deflect the shot.

"My lady! Impecclawable timing as always!"

She turned her head to him, opening her mouth to say something, most likely to scold his use of a pun, but she was cut off by Rose's scream.

"No! He is my prince! This is not a love triangle!" Rose's focus was now on Ladybug, and she was a lot more relentless in her pursuit of the heroine's demise.

Ladybug grinned and somersaulted away from the Princess, Chat followed soon after. "It's one of her flyers, Alya told me she got into a fight with Chloe this morning about her club and then disappeared."

Chat's eyebrows rose in surprise, "You had time to interrogate witnesses?"

Ladybug stuttered, "Uh y-yeah, interrogation is my specialty you know."

Chat stored that little tidbit of suspicious information for later, surveying the villain for any sign of a flyer. The billowy skirts of her dress provided ample opportunity, but he didn't love the idea of frisking her down for a scrap of paper. He couldn't see any way of getting to a slip of paper without invasive personal actions.

"I don't-"

"The wand!"

"I thought we were looking for a flyer?"

"That wand, there was a picture just like that one on the flyer, Nathanaël designed it!"

"And you know this how?"

"No time for questions kitty!" And with that Ladybug vaulted towards the villain. Chat hesitates, thinking of how strange it is that not only has she seen the flyer, but that he knows the name of one of his classmates. Well, he had been an akuma at one point, but how had she known that he was responsible for the artwork on the flyer?

She was always pushing away questions, even when he had found her sobbing on the rooftops about a boy. She wouldn't even tell him the boy's name, only that she had overheard him tell his friend that he wasn't interested in her like that. She had been sitting on that roof for a while by the time he had found her, and had cried how much she hated her civilian form.

"Prince Noir! Catch my slipper!" Rose kicked her shoe off and it flew towards Chat, breaking his thought train, he was quick to dodge. Along with the shattering of glass, a large pumpkin emerged from the shoe.

"Sorry mademoiselle, but it seems as though you're confused about how a fairytale is supposed to end." Chat exclaimed as he shoved his staff into the ground, extending it so that he was level with the flying girl. He snatched for the wand and she shoved him away, leading to a teetering Chat. He regained his balance and jumped off of the staff and onto a nearby roof. From that roof he could see Ladybug swinging towards his winged classmate. She copied his previous action, and was actually successful in grabbing the wand.

Princess, however, seemed to have been anticipating this. She zapped Ladybug pointblank in the chest and easily reclaimed her wand, as she flew into the air, building a castle around her, Ladybug fell to the ground. Panicking slightly, Chat ran towards the falling girl, succeeding in catching her.

"Are you ok, milady?" He breathed as he set her down carefully, she was quick to get back on her feet.

"It was just a light show Chat, it caught me off guard," her voice was strong, yet he caught the slight sway as she attempted to run towards the growing structure.

He grabbed her arm before she could escape, "You need to be careful Ladybug," she starts slightly at how serious he sounds, "Living without you would be impawssible!"

She rolled her eyes at him and bounded towards the castle, the akumatized Rose had locked herself in a tower made of components ripped from nearby buildings and cars. It was a giant composite of the city, an ugly attempt at a castle, a Frankenstein version of a fairytale.

"Ok, so you'll take us up there, and you distract her while I grab the wand."

"Not to be blunt my lady, but that plan sounds a little bit underdeveloped."

"Well then do you have a better idea?" She raises her eyebrows almost mockingly, and Chat can feel the blood rush to his cheeks. Ladybug had never called him out like that, she had never insulted his part in their crime fighting duo like that.

"Ladybug I-"

"Just take me up there, I'm running out of time!"

Chat looks to her earrings and sees that there are still five dots, what does she mean by running out of time? Then he notices it, notices the slight dusting of blue on her fingertips, he noticed the little bit of white streaking her hair.

He reached up to touch it and she pulled away, "Frozen is her favorite movie," she mutters, stroking her hair subconsciously.

"Well it doesn't look bad," Chat jokes, referencing the movie.

"We need to go," she says softly, "Soon I won't be able to purify anymore."

In response, Chat wraps his arm around her waist and launches himself towards the opening in the tower.

"I didn't even have to let down my hair!" Rose's voice tinkled from within. Chat threw Ladybug into the opening as gently as he could and flipped in after her, retracting his staff as he goes.

Rose sat on a bed made of a bent up convertible, and she was running a brush made from a fork through her hair, which had grown twenty feet in the minutes since he had seen her.

"You brought the stupid bug again? We already have a villain in our fairytale!" She gestured towards the cage in the corner where a gagged Chloe was banging against the bars.

"Ignore her, your prince has arrived!" Chat does a mock bow, as he had done so many times for his lady. Rose turned her head away from the charging Ladybug long enough for her to grab onto to her wand again.

"Let go of me!" Rose exclaimed and flew out of the tower with Ladybug still clinging on. Chat Noir's heart drops as he sees Ladybug gain possession of the wand, leaving her freefalling. She catches herself by wrapping her yo-yo around one of the jagged edges of the recycled tower. Princess flew at her, shooting bolts of pink and green light, destroying her own tower, but Ladybug broke the wand in half before she could reach her.

"Catch her Chat!" Ladybug shouts as she releases her hold of the crumbling tower and uses the yo-yo to catch the butterfly. "I release you from evil!" Ladybug completes the purification and the newly whitened butterfly flies away all in the middle of her freefall.

Chat catches the falling Rose as Ladybug instructed, losing sight of her in the process. He hears a weakened "Miraculous cleansing light" from somewhere off to the side, yet still can't see his lady.

Rose was understandably upset, and Chat felt just a little guilty leaving her alone to deal with it: but his lady was also alone somewhere, possibly freezing to death. The buildings had been restored, the castles destroyed, and the wandering frogs were once again students, yet Chat could tell something wasn't right.

He was searching through the crowd for Ladybug when a red blur crashed into his chest, "Chat Noir!" it buzzed. "You have to help her!"

"Who?" Chat Noir demands, cupping the small sprite, but he knows. This was a kwami, the same kind of creature which was currently residing in his ring, and this kwami belongs to Ladybug.

"Ladybug," she sobbed, "Ladybug is hurt, she's hiding, but she's hurt."

"Where?"

"There!" The kwami points towards the staircase of a building with a little cave-like pocket underneath. Chat attempts to run and not squeeze the little kwami to death, but the kwami shrugs out of his grasp and flies beside him instead.

When he gets to the staircase, he sees a horrific sight, but it isn't Ladybug who is injured, it's Marinette. She's sitting against a wall, her eyes clenched tightly in pain, her face pale. One of her legs had an awkward angle to it, and a slight bulge against her tight jeans was clearly visible in her calf region. Blood was seeping from the lump, coloring the pale pants.

"Marinette! What happened?" _And where's Ladybug?_ He wants to ask, but can't force himself to say, not when she's in so much obvious pain.

"The tower collapsed, and I fell." She ground out.

"But Ladybug's cure, it heals, why are you still hurt?"

"Oh kitty," she groans, "you haven't figured it out?"

Then it clicks, and he feels like a complete idiot. The kwami had pointed him in the direction, told him Ladybug was injured, and obviously the kwami being there meant that Ladybug had lost her transformation. And once she transformed back, she transformed into her civilian form, whom is Marinette, who is still laying there with a broken leg.

"I was falling and I had to purify, so I purified and I caught myself but my yo-yo had wrapped around one of the pieces of the tower and it was falling so I fell the rest of the way anyways, right onto my leg. I used my cure, and the debris disappeared and I managed to get under here where I untransformed. Tikki has told me before that the cure, it doesn't always work on the Ladybug."

"I need to get you to a hospital."

"How will you explain it? No one is ever injured in the akuma attacks, that's my job, to fix them." Her eyes had shot open now and her pupils had shrunk a frightening amount.

"It doesn't matter! You're hurt, you're hurt badly, you need doctors Princess," he stroked her cheek and she swatted his hand away.

"Chat if my identity is revealed, if Hawkmoth finds out I can't cure myself, imagine that." She shudders and he knows it's more than just the pain.

"Fine, you were in a hit and run motorbike accident while you were distracted when escaping the crazy akuma."

"Why aren't there any witnesses?" She challenged, and Chat reminds himself that this is Ladybug, but somehow his shy classmate at the same time.

"There were a couple of people who were trapped in the midst of the attack, and I ran you to the hospital before any of them regained awareness."

Marinette nods in agreeance and Chat takes that as his cue to scoop her up. He almost drops her when she screams as he jostles her leg.

"I'm fine, just try to run smoothly," she says, but the tears running down her face aren't really reassuring him.

Chat starts to run towards the hospital, thankful that the akuma had attacked his school and he knew how to get to the nearest hospital. He barely breathes as he hears her grunt with every step, and then freezes when she becomes dead weight in his arms.

"Marinette?"

"She passed out, get her to the hospital!" The kwami squeaks from her spot on Chat's shoulder.

Chat starts running again, faster than he's ever ran before, but without the speed of rooftop travel. Five minutes seems like five hours, so it takes him five cat hours to enter the emergency room shouting for help.

Nurses rush out of a back hallway rolling a stretcher and urge him to place her gently. He does as they ask, explaining the circumstances of the accident as he went. The nurses scurried away without more than a nod and a gesture to the front desk. There's a line, the normal emergency room panic, so Chat waits in the corner for a few minutes, ignoring the gazes of the other Parisians.

"Chat Noir!" The receptionist yelped, "what brings you here?"

"I found a girl, she was a victim of a hit and run and I'd appreciate it if her parents could be contacted."

"Did you get her name?"

"I think she said Marinette Dupain-Cheng before she passed out? She's a student at the same high school of the last akuma attack, I don't know the name," he lied effortlessly. Despite his concern for Marinette, he knew Ladybug would kill him for slipping up in a way that would cause her to lose her secret identity.

The secretary just nodded, her eyes bright, a smile teasing the corners of her lips. He noticed a Chat Noir and Ladybug calendar propped up in the corner of her desk, and flashes her another Chat smile- her cheeks filled with a subsequent blush. "

"Could I talk to her really fast before I have to go? I need to see if she can remember the driver."

"That's not allowed she'll be in prep and they'll probably have already sedated her by now."

"Could you ask?" Cue another Chat grin.

The receptionist blushed again, and then pressed a few keys on her keyboard, she was quickly speaking with someone through her headphones. "We have a superhero on a schedule here who'd like to avenge the girl with the leg injury?"

Chat could hear buzzing on the other line, "I know it isn't protocol doctor, but you can't operate until her parents are contacted unless it's critical."

More buzzing, and the receptionist smiled. She motioned towards the hallway which Marinette had been whisked down, "23B, you have about five minutes before it becomes critical."

Chat grins again, but his heart isn't in it anymore. Operate, the word frightened him; like an akuma battle that he couldn't have her back in. The hallway seemed to extend forever, her door was at the very end of corridor.

He opened the door to see his classmate, whom has also been the partner he's pined for the entire time. He curses his denseness, so close, yet he had never even once considered that it could've been that obvious. Marinette was laying down, her eyes staring at the ceiling blankly as two nurses bustled around her.

"Oh Chat Noir!" One of the nurses shrilled, "I'm a huge fan!"

"Me too!" The other nurse chimed.

"Fans are always appreciated. I just need to ask Marinette a couple of questions so that I can find the guy."

"Oh of course," the first nurse nodded. She was older than the other nurse, grey occasionally streaking her chestnut hair. Both of the women shuffled out of the room, giggling the whole way.

He turned his focus back to Marinette, her skin had gone so pale it was camouflaging into the stark white of the hospital sheets. Her fingers were gripping the sheets tightly and her eyes were locked on her elevated leg.

"Surgery," she whispered, "They're going to operate."

"It's ok milady, I'm sure they're perfectly capable," he said nonchalantly, but in reality his heart had dropped and was beating about thirty paces faster.

Her eyes shot up and met his, "You have Tikki, right?"

The tiny red sprite who had been residing in one of his zippered pockets poked her head out, "Right here Marinette!"

Marinette smiled widely, "You have to keep her safe, Chat, and hidden, and," she hesitated, her hands reaching for her ears slowly. "You need to keep these too."

Chat gasped slightly as Marinette held out her Miraculous earrings, her source of power. "They've already made me take them out once, I can't lose them while I'm… unconscious."

Chat closed his gloved hand around both the earrings and her petite hand. "It'll be ok Marinette, I promise it will be ok."

She took a shuddering breath and dumped the earrings into his hand, returning her gaze to her leg.

"The bone is sticking out, they have to get it back in and then if the bleeding isn't too bad, they're going to put a rod in my leg, and my foot just-" She gestured towards the screen beside her bed with a sniffle. In the half an hour or so since he had left her on the stretcher, they had developed x-rays. From what he could understand, her tibia was in three separate pieces while her ankle had another fracture straight through, it looked exactly what it was: broken.

"Ladybug-" She glared at him, scaring him just a little, "Marinette, you'll be better before you know it and then-"

"That's easy for you to say!" She yelped, "You have your legs, you'll leave the hospital and run across the rooftops and return to whatever mansion you live in, hiding your real identity, and I'll be here! I-I have a high tolerance for pain but I have absolutely no patience. This will take months to heal, Tikki will find a new Ladybug and, and, and I'll be alone!" She sobbed, covering her face with her hands. Chat moved to comfort her, but Tikki was faster.

"I could never replace you Marinette! You're one of a kind! You both are! You have no idea how difficult it is to find a Ladybug, and if you find a Ladybug you need to have a Chat Noir too, because one can't exist without the other and that just makes it four times as hard. You two, you two will be the wielders of the Miraculous for the rest of your lives, no matter what happens!" Tikki nuzzled Marinette's cheek.

Chat heard the handle of the door move, and with cat-like reflexes he shoved Tikki back into hiding. "Ok, we got the go ahead from your parents, we'll be prepping you for surgery immediately." The nurse flashed Marinette a sympathetic smile and Chat knew she'd take good care of his Princess- that didn't make him feel any better about the situation though.

"Can- uh can Chat Noir stay with me while you prep me?"

The nurse bit her lip, obviously conflicted and not wanting to deny a little girl of a request so simple. "Ok, but we'll keep that between us right?" She looked to each of them, only to receive two vigorous nods in return. She pretended to be preoccupied by the various machines, but he could tell she was listening.

"I'm scared," Marinette whispered, "I don't like being unconscious. What if," her eyes flash to the nurse and her voice lowers, "What if I'm needed while I'm out."

"They don't happen twice in a day, he needs to recharge,"

She breathes a small sigh of relief despite the fact that Chat knows that she already knew that. It gives him a little burst of pleasure knowing that she depended so heavily on his words.

"Ok sweetheart, the anesthesiologist will be in here in a few minutes and he'll put you under. Before you know it it'll all be over!"

"I hope so," Marinette muttered as the nurse exited the room again.

"It hurts Chat, they gave me painkillers but they aren't helping."

"They don't work instantly sometimes-"

"Actually," Tikki squeaked from Chat's pocket, "Miraculous wielders burn toxins off at an incredibly fast rate, a perk!"

"Why can't it be healing though," Marinette grumbled.

"You do have slightly faster healing, it'll be much easier for you to heal than it would be for a normal person. Besides, you have a high pain tolerance, and now you know you can never be drugged!"

Marinette groaned and sunk lower in her bed, wincing as she moved her leg just slightly. The anesthesiologist walked in a few seconds later and placed a mask over Marinette's head with only a nod. "Count backwards from 100 and you'll be out by 90."

"100,99,98," Marinette starts, her eyes drooping by 90 yet she was still conscious by 85. The anesthesiologist hums and writes a few notes on his clipboard, which Chat hopes will aide her acclimation.

As she struggles against the drug, Chat has a sudden idea. He feels the bulge in his jacket pocket, not Tikki but his left pocket where his bracelet- or Marinette's bracelet, has resided for nearly a year.

"My friend gave me this for luck," he whispers as he ties the bracelet around her wrist, ignoring the glare of the doctor. Marinette flinches and struggles, but by now her slurred numbers are in the sixties and he knows she's barely there.

Her numbers stop suddenly and he realizes that she's completely unconscious. The nurse who has been standing by the door walks around him and starts pushing the stretcher out of the room, much to his discontent. The anesthesiologist follows close behind, and he is left in a silent room. Silent until he hears the beep of his ring, that is.

 **A/N: Sorry I'm horrible at fight sequences! I think that this story could end up being three chapters maybe? I'd love some positive criticism, reviews are appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

As he leaves the hospital he sees the Dupain-Chengs rushing into the waiting room, and has the sudden urge to comfort them. His ring is down to three toes though, and he'd rather comfort them as Adrien anyways.

As usual, no one noticed the green flash of light in a nearby alleyway. Plagg had once told him that the light he gave off was covered in mundane ways, that a normal human would never understand it; similar to how no one had ever recognized him as Adrien Agreste before, it was all Miraculous magic. He hadn't understood it until earlier today, when he found out that Marinette was Ladybug. The similarities were so obvious to him now, the freckles, the eyes, they even had the same hairstyle! Yet he had never even thought to connect the dots.

"Why do you torture me?" Plagg moaned from his hands, "Cheese now!"

Adrien smiled and reached into the backpack that had reappeared on his shoulders after the transformation for the bag he carried for his kwami. If a normal person found him with a bagful of a cheese, he doubts that the Miraculous magic would explain it.

"So you got lucky," Plagg said between swallows, "Ladybug is in love with you."

The other floating Kwami, whom Adrien just noticed, nudges Plagg. Adrien starts, "What?"

"Come on, she's Marinette."

Adrien continues to stare at him with wide eyes, "Are you serious? I was sure you knew and were just being a gentleman."

"Marinette…Has a crush on me?"

"Only for the past three years! You're as dense as a rock." Plagg rolled his eyes and turned his full attention back to the camembert.

Marinette had a crush on him? It did make sense, how she was always stuttering around him yet was confident enough to run for class president. After Nino and Alya started dating, he and Marinette were together frequently, forming a little third wheel club. He had always felt protective of her, which he had attributed to her small stature and clumsy nature- if someone didn't watch out for her she'd end up breaking herself.

But she isn't clumsy, she's Ladybug. Adrien struggled to wrap his mind around the revelation. He was by no means disappointed, better to have someone he knew and liked than some random Parisian, he was actually a little excited by it.

"Would you happen to have anything sweet?" The red Kwami-Tikki- breaks his thought process.

Adrien reopens his backpack and offers her a granola bar, which she begrudgingly accepts. It seemed to him as though Marinette had gotten a much nicer Kwami, though their personalities match.

"Wait a second, if I'm who Ladybug was crushing on," he says, referencing their rooftop conversation a few weeks ago, "then I'm the one who friend-zoned her!"

"Bingo mon ami," Plagg replied through a mouth of cheese.

"I never did that! I would never do that, if Marinette ever asked me out I would, I would…"

"Accept?" Plagg winked, "Yeah you've been crushing on her for a while, like Ladybug has been crushing on you as Chat Noir, but you're both in _love_ with the wrong version of each other. Remember when you told Nino you weren't up for a double date?"

Adrien's forehead scrunches in concentration as he tries to recall such a minor event, "Wait! That was because Ladybug and I had a patrol that night! He didn't use the words "double date either."

"Well first off, patrol wasn't until midnight that night so you could have, but you rejected Marinette for Ladybug," Plagg snorted, and even Tikki giggled.

"Did you know?" Adrien demands.

"No actually, Tikki is horrible at keeping secrets so we made an agreement, I don't know, three hundred years ago? It's sometimes in your best interests for identities to remain secret."

"And sometimes it's best if you don't reveal crushes that someone has been hiding for three years!" Tikki scolds, waving her granola bar at Plagg.

"Oh come on, I could've told him three years ago!"

"You would've if there was cheese involved."

"But that's cheese," Tikki rolls her eyes and turns her attention back to Adrien. "Can we go back to the hospital? It makes me anxious to be so far from Marinette."

"You're not the only one," Adrien mutters as he opens his backpack for the Kwami to fly into.

By the time he made it back into the waiting room, Alya and Nino had shown up. "Oh bro, I'm glad you got my text!" Nino exclaimed as he wrapped Adrien in a hug. He hadn't gotten the text, but was glad for an excuse to explain his sudden appearance.

"H-how could I have left her alone?" Alya sobbed, "We all know she needs monitoring!"

"It isn't your fault," Adrien was quick to assure, "She always runs off!"

"You're right, but a hit and run? Someone on the Ladyblog said that Chat Noir was investigating!"

"Yeah I saw him on the roofs when I was coming up, I'm pretty sure you just missed him."

"If I wasn't so upset about my best friend I would be so upset about that!" She buried her face in Nino's chest and Nino ran his fingers through her hair.

"It's just her leg Alya, I'm sure she'd be fine with you being upset about a missed interview."Alya ignored Nino's comment and continues crying into his jacket.

"Where are her parents?"

Nino gestured to the hallway where he had gone to see Marinette a little while ago, standing just at the entrance were her parents and a doctor. Tom was moving his hands animatedly while speaking to the doctor, and Sabine was standing slightly behind him with tears streaming down her face. Adrien wondered if they knew their daughter as the crime-fighting vigilante that she is, but decided, or hoped, that if she was unwilling to tell her partner of almost three years, it meant she didn't want to involve anyone. Alya obviously didn't know, no way she would be so obsessed with the hero if she knew that she was so close.

Whatever Tom had said prompted a nod from the doctor, who quickly disappeared back down the hall. Tom put his arm around Sabine's shoulder and smiled slightly when he noticed the blond boy. He waved his large hand, beckoning him over, and Adrien was excited to acquiesce.

"Adrien, you got here fast, did Alya call you?"

"Yeah er- Nino texted me but I'm sure Alya made him," it wasn't a lie, "I came as soon as I could."

"Marinette is so lucky to have such great friends," Sabine said as she wiped her tears away. He may have imagined it, but she gave him quite the look with the word "friends."

"We're the ones lucky to have her," again, not a lie.

"We were so worried and the doctors basically told us nothing over the phone, they just wanted our consent! We obviously had to close the shop and then we ran here."

"How long has she been in surgery?

"Twenty five minutes? Give or take a few, the doctor was giving us an update. They've already, uh, gotten the bone back into her leg?" The sentence ended as a question with a little shiver from Tom, "they closed that wound up, and then they cut her knee open and they were inserting the bar when he came out."

"Oh, uh what next?"

"Queasy?" Tom smiled weakly, "Me too. They have to make another cut below her knee for the nail."

"Nail?" Adrien squeaked in surprise.

"Yeah a bar and a nail, she'll be filled with metal." Adrien could feel movement in his backpack and knew that Tikki was having a similar panic attack.

"But that's it, right?"

"Her ankle will hopefully be ok with just a cast. They don't want to put any more staples in her."

Adrien shudders again, staples sound so much worse than stitches. As Chat Noir, he'd gotten stitches before. Not from Akuma battles, his lady always at least closed the wound enough to prevent that sort of action, but just during the usual late night gang fight. He often found himself patrolling the streets alone, basically just looking for fights.

Tom walked behind the teen and clapped a large hand on his shoulder, "She's a fighter," Adrien almost snorted, "She'll be hobbling around before you know it."

Except Adrien knew that Ladybug would not be ok with hobbling around. She's fiercely-almost dangerously- independent, and he knows how this will crush her. But he knew he obviously couldn't say that, so he just nodded.

"I think I'm going to go back to the bakery and get some treats for you three, we'll have extras since we're obviously not going to reopen today," Sabine claps her hands enthusiastically, "Would you like to join me Adrien?"

"I would, but…" He trails off, his eyes drawn to the endless hallway where Marinette was being cut and stapled.

"She'll be in surgery for another half hour at least," Tom supplies sympathetically, "And we'll be here the whole time."

"Come on Romeo," Sabine squeezed Tom's arm, and then grabs onto Adrien, tugging him towards the exit.

"That girl," Sabine says with a shake of her head once they had gotten onto the sidewalk outside, "She's always such a drama queen."

"Drama queen?"

"Chat Noir himself ran her into the hospital! He totally disregarded medical protocol but regardless how… Dramatic." She covers her hand with her mouth as she laughs.

"Medical protocol? How so?" Adrien attempts a tone of nonchalance, attempts being key word.

"Well with broken bones, you're supposed to keep the bone as still as possible, movement could be detrimental."

"D-detrimental?"

"Oh no don't worry, he is evidently a very fast runner, and Marinette would have tried to crawl to the hospital herself if he hadn't carried her!"

Adrien breaths a small sigh of relief yet can't help feeling a little guilty. He should have called an ambulance, what was he thinking? He had taken medical classes, he knew protocol, he had even done his own stitches before! He was no amateur, he was Chat Noir and he was supposed to protect Ladybug yet he had failed.

"You look pale," Sabine commented as she pushed the door of the bakery open.

"Just worried for Marinette is all."

"She's strong, you know. I know my husband has already said she's a fighter, but she's more than that. She's so positive and always looks on the bright side. I'm sure if she were awake right now she'd be talking about how happy she is that her tibia broke and not her femur. She used to play this game, because even though she's positive, she's clumsy, she called it the luck game." Adrien snorts, and Sabine's head snaps from the display case she's been prowling, he attempts to play it off with a nod. "Anyways, she would get so mad, and then all of the sudden she'd start singing about how happy she was that it wasn't worse. So cliché, I know. I remember this one time, she was in gymnastics class and she was doing a flip and ended up kneeing herself in the nose. Her nose was swollen and it bled, but it wasn't broken. So she ran all around the bakery with tissues in her nose screaming, "I almost lost my nose today!" And once the tissues could come out she ran around smelling all the cookies and shouting, "I could have never smelled again!" She knocked over three pans of goods that day, and you know I turned to Tom and I said, "It'll be a lot worse than a floor full of cookies when she loses that optimism." But she never has, she's the same as she was as a five year old, bright and optimistic." Sabine hastily threw macaroons into the box, tears forming new tracks down her face. She grabbed a napkin out of the dispenser and haphazardly scrubbed the marks away.

"I- Mrs. Ch-"

"Sabine, you can call me Sabine," she gave him a watery smile.

"Sabine," the name weighed heavily on his tongue, "your daughter is one of the most amazing people I've ever met."

"I think she'd say the same about you."

"What?"

"She's been talking about you for years. When that girl sets her mind to something, she doesn't let it go, and she set her mind on you."

There it was, confirmation of Plagg's words from her own mother: Ladybug had a crush on him. Well, Marinette had a crush on Adrien, and Chat Noir had a crush on Ladybug, is it the same thing?

"I've said too much, she'll probably disown me when she wakes up," Sabine chuckles softly, "Let's go and join the others, okay?" Adrien nodded mutely, using the gap in conversation to process the information. She handed him a few paper bags full of food to carry, and he helped her lock the door.

The hospital was equally as crowded when they returned. However it wasn't difficult to locate Tom and his friends, Tom's hulking figure stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Any news?" Hope tinged her voice.

"No, she should be out of surgery in around ten minutes, you brought the croissants right?"

Sabine shook her head, a smile teasing the corners of her lips. She tossed him one of the bags that she had opted to carry, and Adrien watched in shock as the man inhaled three croissants in less than a minute.

"I'm a stress eater," he mumbled through a mouth full of croissant.

Sabine snorted and continued to disperse the bags throughout his friend group. Macaroons for Alya, chocolate chip cookies for Nino, and a mix of eclairs and crème puffs for him.

"Marinette may have let it slip that you were obsessed with our cream."

Adrien nods enthusiastically before taking the bag with a quick thank you. He let the crème puff melt in his mouth, savoring the vanilla on the inside.

On his fourth éclair the doctor reemerged with a clipboard. He briefly scanned the room before his eyes landed on Tom's large form, which prompted a smile and his quick shuffled walk towards the group.

"Your girl," he gestured towards Sabine and Tom, "she is certainly- uh- well resilient! We had to give her enough anesthesia to sedate two full grown men just so that she would remain unconscious during the operation."

Adrien knew that would cause some eyebrows to raise, she was a small girl, she shouldn't need that kind of anesthesia.

"Should we be concerned about that?"

"Probably not, it's different for every person, that's why a talented anesthesiologist is such a good find. Anyways, she's awake now, our protocol is to limit it to two people at a time for visitation in the first twenty-four hours following surgery. We're going to have to keep her for a day or two of observations, but then she should be good to go!"

Adrien could feel his heart racing, she had to know now, she had to know who he was now. He brings his hands up to his mouth, biting his nails has always been a bad habit of his which his father had paid insane sums of money to hammer out- no one wanted a model with ragged nails.

"Ok kids, Sabine and I are going to go in first, we'll send for you all in a few," Tom smiled at the group and took Sabine's hand as they turned to follow the doctor down the hall.

"Wonder if Marinette is a drug addict," Nino said as soon as they were out of earshot.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well if she's immune to drugs maybe she's built up a tolerance or-"

"You're an idiot, you know?" Alya interrupts with a slap to the back of his head. Adrien couldn't help but agree with the thought and the action.

"I'm just saying!" Alya grunts and turns her back to him.

"So Adrien, you look a little stressed out," Alya raises her eyebrows and looks at his hands, prompting him to drop them back to his sides.

"It's Marinette," he responds simply.

"Yeah I know that, but you don't see the whole grade here skipping class for Marinette, gnawing on their nails for Marinette."

Adrien stares back at her for a second, pondering the best answer. He could answer somewhat honestly, confess to his undying love for the girl, but that would feel like a little bit of a lie. He was in love with her, he had been since the second he had seen Ladybug- yet he had only had a crush on Marinette as a side thought. He had noticed her for her spirit and her beauty like nearly every guy in their class, but Ladybug had always held his love.

"Marinette deserves the attention, don't you think?"

Alya squints at him and nods, he could see the reporter gears turning in her mind, trying to gauge his emotional response. He doesn't even know how he feels, so he's confident that anything she assumes won't be a hundred percent correct.

"Ten euros that she'll ask for Adrien first," he barely hears Alya mutter to Nino as Tom walks back into the room.

"Marinette has requested the presence of one Adrien Agreste," Tom says, Adrien sees Nino begrudgingly slap a bill into Alya's hand.

The hall seems a lot longer than it did the last time he came down, only a couple of hours ago. Upon his entrance to the room Sabine stood up from the chair, "I'll give you two a few minutes, try not to take too long- I don't know how long we can hold Alya off." She giggles and exits the room.

Adrien stares at Marinette, she stares back, the room is silent as he takes in her appearance. Someone pulled her hair out of its typical pigtails and Adrien realizes that he's never seen it down before. Her leg is elevated, propped by something hidden beneath the covers. Before he could say anything, his bag unzips itself and Tikki flies out.

"Marinette!" She squeaks happily, rubbing her cheek against the girl, "You're ok! I heard all these horrible things in the waiting room."

"I'm fine Tikki, just a little sore."

"A little sore? They put a rod in your leg!"

She cringes visibly, "I'm trying not to think about it too much."

"How was the surgery?" Adrien asks, his words cracking just slightly.

"It was," she shudders, "I don't like surgery."

"You didn't feel anything though, right?"

"Nothing at all, but I would come up a little and hear things and it was just weird."

"I'm sorry," his voice rings with sincerity as he tries to convey how sorry he is, not just for her intolerance to anesthesia, for everything.

"I know you are," she smiles weakly and pats Tikki's head, before he can say anything else, he sees tears well in her eyes.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," she breathes out shakily, "I'm so sorry."

"What could you possibly have to be sorry for?"

"I-" she breaks off with a sob and takes a few deep breaths before continuing, "I've ruined everything."

"What do you mean?"

"This," she gestures to her elevated leg, "and our identities, they should have remained the way they've been for the past three years."

His heart drops, "You're disappointed?"

"What?" She squeaks, "No Adrien, no way, no possible way, but you have to be! Then there's Hawkmoth, he could use it against us, he could get either one of us and find out all about both our identities."

"Ok first, I could never be disappointed with you, you're Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the class heartthrob!" He grins at her blush, "And you are my lady, whether in costume or not, a mask doesn't change who you are."

"You know Ladybug and Marinette separately, you've always loved Ladybug but Marinette has always just been there."

He pauses momentarily, "I haven't spent enough time with you as Marinette, but we've got all the time in the world," he winks and raises his hand to brush some of the loose hair out of her face.

She blushes again, "Regardless of that whole mess, look at this," she yanks off the blanket and points to the large mass of white gauze, "do you know what this means?"

"Seated make-out sessions?" Adrien wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, and Marinette turns four shades redder.

"No! If I can't walk, I can't be Ladybug, I can't purify. What do we do? Can you purify?"

"He can't," Tikki speaks from her place on Marinette's pillow, "But just because you can't walk doesn't mean you can't purify, there are always other modes of transportation."

"Tikki," Plagg warns lowly.

"What? Do you want me to take the bus to the fight?"

"No, upgrades."

"Tikki, they aren't 18 yet, we can't just-"

"Exceptions can be made in times of dire circumstance! They're 17 anyways, only a few more months."

"You can't just-"

"What are upgrades?" Adrien interjects, earning himself a glare from Plagg.

"When you turn 18, you two typically get upgrades to your costumes and abilities. Since we always contact you two when you turn 14, 18 marks four years of wielding, and makes you capable of handling a whole other kind of magic."

"Oooh! Like what?" Adrien bounces up and down on the balls of his feet, "Like a new one use power?"

"Let's stick to the physical costume upgrades for Ladybug right now, you never like your upgrades anyways Adrien."

"You mean Chat Noir never likes his upgrades?" Marinette gives Plagg a look that Adrien cannot place, and Plagg just splutters out his quick agreement.

"Anyways," Tikki gives Plagg a look with the quick subject change, "It'll help you with your leg problems Marinette!"

"What is it? Super healing?" Her voice raised an octave in hope.

"Not exactly, it's for your costume, like Adrien gets an additional pair of ears, claws, heightened smell, like a cat. There are certain parts of the Ladybug costume which you can't initially handle."

"Ok but like what?" Adrien sits down on Marinette's bed as he asks the question, but quickly stands up when she noticeably cringes from the jostling of her leg. He gave her a quick apologetic look that she waves away.

"Like," Tikki momentarily glances at Plagg again, whom is still frowning, "Wings."

 **AN: I'm so sorry that this took a billion years to update, thank you all for your reviews and follows and favorites! I just wasn't happy with how this chapter was turning out because it's just kind of a filler for the next chapter, which will skip a few months. I have a whole plotline that I want to go down if you're patient with me!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chat Noir lands silently on the balcony of the Dupain-Cheng patisserie, careful not to disturb the potted plants as he's done so many times before. The light in Marinette's room is still on as usual despite it being well past one in the morning. If he channels his cat senses he can hear the dull thrum of the sewing machine, nearly perpetual on spring nights like tonight. He carefully opens the hatch windows and climbs down.

"Isn't it past your bedtime Princess?" Chat says playfully, delighted by how Marinette jumps ever so slightly at the sound of his voice. Her dedication to this form of work identical to her dedication to fighting crime as Ladybug.

"Chat?" She blinks a couple of times as she switches her machine off halfway down the sleeve of a jacket he knows she's sewing for Alya's birthday. He notices her pull her leg off of the chair she has it propped on so that she can swivel around to talk to him, and he almost encourages her to put it back, but knows that she'll just feel embarrassed as she always does when attention is drawn to her disability.

"The one and only, hope I didn't scare you," he winks.

"Please, as if I could be scared by a little housecat."

"How you wound me my lady, my mistake for assuming you would be as easily frightened as a normal person, nothing can scare the great Ladybug," he feigns disbelief as he falls dramatically onto her bed.

"Anyways," she says with an eye roll, "What brings a kitty like you around here so late?"

"I couldn't sleep knowing how lonely my poor buginette must have been, my conscious wouldn't let me leave a princess in distress!"

"You're too dramatic for your own good, you're lucky I put up with it."

"And people always think that ladybugs are the symbols of good luck, black cats are where it's at!"

She rolled her eyes again, and swivels her chair back to the machine. She switches it back on without repropping her leg and Chat watches as she shifts it uncomfortably underneath the desk.

"Tikki would probably enjoy Plagg's company," Marinette says over the sound of her work, "And I always enjoy Adrien." Chat smiles briefly as he releases his transformation.

"You've always been my favorite Marinette, this boy would wear me down to the last toe every time if it weren't for you," Plagg moans as he zips towards the plate of cookies Tikki is lounging beside.

"I put some cheese aside for you downstairs Plagg, let me go grab it," Marinette switches the machine off again and stands up.

"I can do it," Adrien is quick to her side, quick to offer obvious concern which he knows Marinette will reject.

"Well first off if my parents catch you in our kitchen in the middle of the night there are going to be quite a few questions," despite the loving way they had welcomed him into their family, Tom and Sabine had set a few curfew boundaries which they were obviously disregarding. "Secondly, I need to work my leg out and you know it, I can't be a couch potato forever."

Marinette spins around and resolutely limps towards the staircase. For months, she had required her father (or Adrien at times) to carry her up the stairs to her room, she had just recently reacquired the ability to scale stairs. She took them one at a time, with Adrien following close enough to catch her if she stumbled. Once she reaches the bottom she turns and gives him a glare, then continues her trek to the refrigerator.

Fifteen minutes later, with the upward voyage twice as hard, Plagg is eating the spoils of the war contently. Five months after the fall, Marinette is able to limp around without the aid of her cane or crutches, an impressive recovery for others, but much too slow for her. Three days after her surgery, she had gone back to being Ladybug, fighting off a disgruntled cinema employee composed of nothing but popcorn, surprising the city with her new abilities. Adrien can remember the line that had been scrawled across the Ladyblog for the following week, "WHAT CAN'T SHE DO?" Followed by an article containing the first published picture of Ladybug's sleek new wings. They had materialized against her back, almost invisible when not in use, covered by a thin beetle-like shell that blended in with the rest of her outfit. The picture had captured the light shimmering off the wings, giving them the looks of a stain glass window. Their first fight had been a little clumsy, almost like their first akuma battle all those years ago. She had stumbled over the disguised cast- Tikki had altered the costume so it looked as though she had also acquired new high boots and kwami magic prevented anyone from thinking that far into it. She had attempted to rely on her feet instead of the wings, and then gotten angry at Chat when he abandoned the fight in favor of helping her. Luckily, that akuma had been weak, and she had time to master the balance required to fight with the wings.

Adrien comes up behind her desk chair and wraps his arms around her neck despite her slight protests. "You know you don't have to fight all your own battles," Adrien murmurs close to her ear, with his head propped on her shoulder as he watches her work.

"That's why I'm so lucky to have a great partner," she muses without lifting her eyes from the stitches.

"I thought I was the one lucky that you stick around."

She giggles, "Oh Adrien, just let me work."

He watches for a few more minutes over her shoulder before he starts to tug at her loose strands of hair, playfully teasing her already messy twin ponytails until one is almost completely undone.

"Oh my gosh, you're such a cat," she sighs as she spins to face him again, "You can't go five minutes without attention."

"Only with you Princess," he grins cheekily as she pulls out her other hair tie. Her raven hair falls neatly to just past her shoulders, a rare sight which Adrien cherishes.

"Are you happy now?"

"Exceedingly so," he says without missing a beat, "but I would prefer it if you were the one messing up my hair."

She snorts and swivels around again, grabbing her sketchpad before plopping herself down on the floor beside where he's kneeling, carefully propping her leg out, patting her lap and gesturing llike she would for any cat. With her pencil in one hand and his hair in the other, they lay silent minus the slight sound of her pencil against paper.

"That's my favorite thing," Adrien remarks as he points to her tongue peaking slightly from between her lips, a sign of her most dedicated focus.

"You say that about, like everything I do."

"Maybe because you're my favorite thing."

She looks up from her sketchpad, unamused, "I'm not a thing Mr. Agreste."

"Oh my bad, bugs aren't things, they're just bugs."

"Are you trying to provoke me?"

"Is it working?"

She pursed her lips, "Depends."

"On?"

She smiles slightly, and he only feels a slight change in her positioning before she acts. He has no idea how, but in the span of a few seconds she's managed to throw her sketchbook aside, flip him off her lap, and have him pinned underneath her.

"You don't want to provoke me Monsieur." She winks at him and grins, reminiscent of their beginning days as Ladybug and Chat Noir, when he would always "fall" on top of her. He utilizes the brief lapse in concentration to turn the tables, surprising her as he knocks one of the arms propped beside his head off balance. She starts to topple over, and he catches her and swings her around so that she is now underneath him.

"And you, my lady, do not want to-"he breaks off as he notices her wince. She scowls as he stands straight up, even taking a step back with his hands up.

She sits up, "Adrien, you aren't going to break me."

His eyes involuntarily flicker to her leg, hidden beneath her billowy spotted pajama pants and a bulky brace. Her scowl deepens, and he knows that the playful tone that always came so easily would not be returning tonight.

"I see, well it's getting late, you should leave."

Adrien's mouth falls open slightly, she was kicking him out? He had never been kicked out before, even at the height of her disability, she had never really lost her temper.

"Marinette-"

"I'm so sick of everyone treating me like a doll! You and my father and my mother and Alya and Nino- all of our teachers think I'm incompetent! All those new traffic regulation signs around our school, you think I don't know they're for me? I save Paris on an almost daily basis! I made a mistake, one stupid mistake and now I could never walk the same way, live the same way, all because Chloe couldn't just let someone else have a club! But I know it isn't Chloe's fault, it's all my fault, I should've thrown my yo-yo faster, I shouldn't have jumped out of the tower so recklessly, we had more time than that. I've agonized over every detail, over every way I messed up, and what if I do it again? What if it isn't me who gets hurt next time? What if it's Papa or Mama or Nino or Alya, or any civilian? What if-" she swallows, "What if it's you?"

Tears are freely streaming down her face at this point, her eyes already bloodshot- whenever she cries her eyes are always so quick to cloud up red. He doesn't say anything immediately, and she buries her face in her hands, tears slipping in between her fingers.

He remains silent as he gets back onto his knees beside her and wraps her in his arms. After a couple minutes of nothing but the sounds of the street below, Adrien breaks the silence, "I regret that you got hurt."

She sniffles as she waits for him to continue, "But I don't regret your mistake, we both make mistakes Marinette. I've been controlled by an akuma at least a dozen times, I could've hurt you any one of those times. Like I said, I regret that you're in pain, I regret it every time I see you limping or when you see one of those signs or I hear someone talking about how clumsy you are. You aren't clumsy Marinette," she snorts, "Ok maybe just a little. But you're Ladybug, you're the strongest, most brilliant girl I've ever met. Sure, I wish you would accept my help from time to time, but I understand you. You know why I don't regret your mistake? Because it showed me both halves of an amazing girl, it let me know all of you, and let you know all of me. No one has ever known me as well as you do, as fully and clearly as you do, you're everything to me Marinette, mask or no mask."

She doesn't respond for almost a minute, and Adrien is even slightly convinced she's fallen asleep when she blurts out the words that make his heart stop, "I love you."

He doesn't hesitate before ducking his head, crashing his lips into hers. He can taste the salt of her tears and he pulls away slightly, "I love you too," he breathes out before pressing their lips together again. He can almost taste her relief, and can feel her collapse into the kind of kiss which had become so familiar to the couple over the past few months.

"But seriously," she says after coming up for air a few minutes later, "You need to go."

Adrien still doesn't want to leave, but feels a lot better than he did fifteen when her eyes were almost literal flames and she had that look on her face that he is more familiar with seeing when she is about to fight Chloe.

"If my lady insists," he stands up with a feline-like stretch, yawning obnoxiously as he did so.

"She does, I promised Alya that we would go to the market tomorrow morning, or like in six hours."

"Well it's not as if you need beauty rest bugaboo." He reaches down and taps her nose with the word bugaboo, earning a much more playful scowl.

" _Go_."

He smiled and shuffled over to where Plagg and Tikki had been sleeping through the whole ordeal. "Hey Plagg," he poked the kwami in the head, "time to transform me."

Plagg shrieks as he's pulled into the ring, and Adrien feels bad for unintentionally and unexpectedly literally ripping his kwami awake.

"That wasn't nice," Marinette says from across the room.

"I honestly didn't mean to," he's met with a sarcastic hum and an eye roll.

He leaps over to where she's still sitting and crouches down for one last kiss, even though he knows that Plagg will complain about it when they get back.

"Be careful out there kitty," she murmurs, and he knows she's regretting not following him, or not helping him on most of the patrols they used to complete together.

"I always am bug." He winks and then crawls out the trapdoor onto the balcony and into the cool spring breeze.

 **AN: Don't hate me for a completely filler fluff chapter, but I realized that it has somehow been almost a month since my last update and decided that I would cut what I intended for this chapter in half so that I could post something. I'm so bad at time management, sorry! I've got a whole other plot I want to go into for this story, including the rest of the upgrades so there will probably be a couple more chapters! Thank you for all the reviews, follows, and favorites, you guys are all awesome! You can message me with any questions or requests!**


	4. Chapter 4

He's just emerged from a particularly vicious street skirmish when he hears the very faint buzz of her wings. He pauses as he wonders why she would be out and about on a night that wasn't her patrol. He wants to run- to hide the streaks of crimson which run through his hair and down his uniform- but he knows that she can track him through her yo-yo and that running would only make it seem all the more suspicious. She emerges from behind the building, flying at a speed equal or greater than he could run across the rooftops.

"What's up kitty cat?" She asks as her feet hit the ground lightly and her wings retract. He knows that she makes a conscious effort to place her feet equally and favor neither leg when in costume. If she had landed like that as a human she would be discretely hopping from place to place.

"I think that the correct word would be pu-"

He is not expecting her fist to collide playfully with his chest as she repeats her hatred for that word. The light punch winds his weakened state and he nearly falls.

He sees her light blue eyes widen and then truly take him, finding the bloodstains and tears in his suit. "Chat!" She exclaims, "What did you do?"

"I'm a vigilante," He points out, "I was, you know, fighting crime."

"My house," she deadpans with a frown, "now."

She leaps off the roof and he watches as she buzzes towards the bakery and he knows she's about to chew him out. He could turn towards his own empty mansion but he knows that her stitches were much better than his and that the talk would be inevitable.

When his boots land on her balcony he can faintly hear her shuffling through her medical cabinet. He knows that since their identities were revealed she had bulked up on the medical supplies. There would probably be warm rags, a needle and thread, and gauze waiting for him. He was hoping for cookies too but judging by her expression, cookies would not be involved. As he dropped into her room he could smell the rubbing alcohol.

"Can I assume that you weren't planning on dropping by tonight?"

"Well I mean it wasn't on my schedule or anything but I could have-"

"Adrien." Her voice staccatos and he can hear her anguish.

This wasn't the first time she had caught him or that he had stumbled into her home bearing injuries, and it certainly wasn't the first time she was upset about it. "Drop your transformation." He does so silently and follows her into the bathroom after setting Plagg up with an angry looking Tikki and a plate of cheese and cookies. She has laid a plastic tarp onto the floor as usual. After the stitches he knows that she'll fill up the bathtub with warm salty water and soap, wash the tarp and rags, and that before the sun is up they would all be neatly folded back in the closet. She wordlessly gestures to his shirt and he pulls it over his head. She is as uninterested in his physique as a nurse or doctor as she wipes the drying blood off with water and then alcohol.

She remains silent as she carefully stitches the two major wounds and then bandages them and the others. His suit prevents the wounds from being anything but superficial, but without stitches the scars will be more pronounced, jagged, and the cuts would take longer to heal. He pulls his dark shirt over his head as she puts away the supplies, still silent. It isn't until she is rolling up the plastic sheet that he breaks the silence.

"So?"

"So what," she responds simply.

"So how angry are you?"

She scowls at him and he regrets his words. "That's a stupid question Adrien."

"Well I don't know what you want me to ask!"

"I want you to ask me for help! It was fine when you didn't know me or you knew I was supposed to be using a crutch or a cane but you should be able to ask me for help now. We're partners but I feel like you want to do all the work."

Adrien looks at her disbelievingly, "You feel like I want to do all the work? You won't even let me help you down the stairs!"

She scoffs, "That's different! This is life or death Adrien! What if one of those guys had a gun? Or if one of their knives hit you where stitches aren't enough?"

"I know I know," he relents quickly, "but I don't have time to just call you."

"It would take you less than thirty seconds to send me your coordinates, I'm the only number in your baton."

"I will next time, I promise I will. I know what you're capable of Marinette but I'm just so used to jumping right in."

"You need to stop," she says softly, "I'm always ready to help kitty."

"I know."

She smiles and walks into his arms, only limping slightly, and buries her face in his shirt. They stand like that for a minute as he strokes her hair before he feels her shifting her leg uncomfortably. He pulls her away from her cleaning duties to sit down in her desk chair.

"So if you two are done fighting, it's time for me and Tikki to explain the rest of your upgrades." Plagg's voice rings across the otherwise quiet room and Marinette and Adrien turn- or swivel in Marinette's case- eagerly towards him.

 **AN: So I know that it's been a literal year since I posted anything for this, but someone recently commented and asked me to add more so I figured I would. I actually have another chapter mostly written so I'll be glad to add it if anyone else still cares!**


	5. Chapter 5

"You're both eighteen now," Tikki chirps excitedly, "and have been for a couple of months now."

They nod. Adrien and Marinette had tried to bring these upgrades up to their kwami for weeks but they had always been ignored or waved on. It was driving them both a bit insane knowing that these new powers which could level the playing field with Hawkmoth were so close.

"But we've decided that you need to know the history first." Marinette and Adrien startle slightly, for years they had been denied the stories of their kwami's origins.

"But no interruptions." Plagg's stern voice overshadows Tikki's light one, bringing them back to the gravity of the conversation.

"As you know, you two were chosen by Master Fu for your charitable actions. You've both questioned why you would be chosen before, and you've both questioned our loyalties. You know that there have been other wielders and you think we are going to choose another in your lifetime. The truth is, we won't have any other Ladybugs or Chat Noirs for centuries."

They make their respective sounds of surprise, Marinette from her chair, and Adrien from the place on the ground where he had settled.

"Your presence awakens us. Without you, we remain dormant within our items. For hundreds of years you have been awakening us."

"I've seen the hieroglyphics," Marinette says, earning a glare from Plagg. "There was a Ladybug in Egypt?"

"Yes," Tikki starts, earning another glare from Plagg, "Wherever you pop up, we will be given to you."

"You mean wherever you find someone like us," Adrien points out, "Someone who can wake you up."

Tikki and Plagg share a look before Plagg floats a little closer, "Yes and no kid. It's more complicated than that. You're always different yeah, but really you're always the same. We've had you remember stuff from before, or see stuff from before. In however many years, you'll be gone, but you guys always come back, it's always the same."

"You're saying we… Reincarnate?" Marinette's voice shakes slightly.

"No it's not like that, or we don't really know or understand it. You'll know sooner or later Marinette. But for now we'll talk about upgrades! Aesthetically you'll have antenna-"

"I always wondered why I didn't get them! There's a whole forum on the Ladyblog about it-"

"I said no interruptions."

"Sorry Plagg."

"Anyways," Tikki continues, with an angry look at Plagg, "This will take some getting used to as it will alter your perception of everything around you. Ultimately though it will prevent any surprise attacks as you'll be able to see all around you without looking."

"Wow that's so cool!"

"Yes! Also you both will be given some light costume redesign. As you have aged we've altered things here and there, pockets or alternative weapon placement and all that sort of thing. Miraculous costumes change throughout the ages, you know that what your costumes are now wouldn't be ok in the 1800s. It has come to our attention that some armor would be helpful."

"That would be amazing," Adrien sighs, his hand tenderly brushing his recent stitches. Without alcohol or any kind of drug to lighten the pain, stitches were hard.

"You both can help with that, and I think that your respective areas of expertise will be very beneficial. So Marinette, right now you have your antennae and your wings. There are some new yoyo tricks which you'll learn later, but most significantly, you'll have a second yoyo. Ok so, Adrien, Plagg will explain your upgrades."

"Like I said before, you're never happy with what I have to offer you and I don't really care. Your claws get an upgrade, they're longer and you'll be able to break through metals without Cataclysm. Your baton will double as a sort of a shield type thing, you've been using it like that for a while, but now you'll be able to break it apart and actually specialize the function of each side. Your senses will all increase significantly. Up until this point you've been relying more on your human ears but now it'll be more on your cat ears. Your balance and your ability to jump will increase as well. You won't be as reliant on your baton now, and more importantly, you'll always land on your feet. Yeah that's about it."

"Hey that's not fair," Marinette breaks the brief silence, "Those are all just upgrades on what he already can do."

"He's usually the one that says that," Plagg mutters. "Chat Noir and Ladybug have to balance each other out, that's the way of the universe. He just started with more raw capabilities than you did."

"I think it's fine Mari, it sounds awesome."

"But why couldn't we just start with these powers?" Marinette says with a frown.

"It's not that simple, it could have overwhelmed you. You've lived your entire lives as normal human beings, and these added senses are a lot for you to process. Yeah, four years is a long time to wait but in the grand scheme of your hero careers, it's not that long. The threat that awakens Ladybug and Chat Noir is always different, and Hawkmoth turned one of us against you. Risking ruining the balance when you were holding your own perfectly fine could have hurt one or both of you."

They both pause to consider this. They had started off falling over each other, and it had taken months or even years before they could confidently say they were a cohesive team. Learning to fly or being able to see without looking could have overwhelmed them. "How come you think we can handle the powers now?" Adrien asks.

"You're older, wiser, you've been fighting for a long time. You're a lot stronger than you were when you opened the boxes at fourteen. Marinette handled the wings perfectly despite the fact that she had to receive them early."

"And Hawkmoth gets stronger at the same time that you do," Plagg says through a mouth of cheese, "The universe wants everything to be balanced."

"That's stupid! How can we have balance with our enemies?"

"Marinette, it isn't all black and white. When you defeat Hawkmoth, another villain will emerge. Maybe he or she won't be a Miraculous wielder, but good must be balanced by evil."

"Then what's the point of even fighting?"

All three look at her in surprise. Throughout everything, even when she doubted that she was meant to be Ladybug, she had never questioned the need for justice. "Well what's the point in anything then?" Adrien responds. "You're always so headstrong Marinette, you know the difference between right and wrong. Sure, you've made mistakes, but without you around there would be so many more mistakes. It might feel like a constant battle but think about how many people you save every day."

"How many people _we_ save," she corrects quickly.

"Without darkness there cannot be light and vice versa, don't ever doubt that the world needs you two."

"I feel like you two doubt yourself every five minutes, can we just agree that you're both special yada yada and etc?" Plagg complained.

"Leave them alone," Tikki squeaks, "You know how they work Plagg."

"Doesn't mean it can't annoy me," Plagg moans.

"I've been annoying you for years now Plagg, you'd think you'd be over it."

"You know, some days I think that I am, but then you come up with brand new ways to irritate me!"

"Thanks, you know you're no cup of-"

"How will we get these upgrades?" Marinette interrupts abruptly.

"We can start designing them whenever you want Marinette!"

"Would you like to assist Chat?" Marinette asks while gesturing to her large sketchpad sprawled out on her desk. Adrien hesitates, this wouldn't be the first time he's tried to help her with her designs, and it always ends with a frustrated Adrien and a disappointed Marinette.

Within the first month of their relationship, they had decided that they each had their own talents. They had both dealt with the feeling of insignificance- Marinette as Ladybug and Adrien as himself. Ironically, Marinette was more comfortable as a civilian yet less comfortable with Adrien's civilian persona, but Adrien was more comfortable as Chat Noir and with Ladybug. Sometimes it even felt like they were in two separate relationships. With Marinette's injuries, she wasn't able to be Ladybug as often as she had been, so they spent a decent amount of time sneaking around.

"I don't know if that's a good idea Bugaboo," he says hesitantly.

"Come on, you know I love it when you help me."

His hand brushes his side again as he thinks about his recent injuries and his upcoming fashion shoot. His father would not be happy if he had bags under his eyes, especially when anticipating the negative reaction to his upcoming request to change alone to avoid detection. His costume was priority, but avoiding a fight with his father- and the fight he risked with Marinette- was probably of greater importance.

"I don't want to get in your way. You always work better without me."

She looks up at him with the blue eyes he had pined after for years and he almost wants to stay. But he looks at Plagg who nods and so he issues the command. "I'll see you tomorrow my lady?"

"It's already tomorrow chaton," she smiles slightly and he can tell it doesn't reach her eyes. She moves to get up and see him out, but he stops her with a kiss. When he backs away, her cheeks are light red and she looks a little happier.

He's about to climb out when she shouts, "Don't get into any more fights, at least not before calling me."

"Of course, there's no Chat Noir without Ladybug."

He jumps out while unintentionally thinking that the same might not be true for Ladybug.

 **AN: I want to thank everyone for the great reviews! I'm sorry for leaving the last chapter on an unnecessary cliffhanger but I just wanted to see if anyone was still interested. I only ever lightly edit these chapters so I apologize for any grammatical errors. I'm open to constructive criticism! Thanks again!**


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